Concerning Hobbits and Wolves
by ShivaVixen
Summary: While recovering in Rivendell, Kili realizes that Bilbo was far more scared of the mere possiblity of wolves than orcs, and decides to ask a simple question. Why did Bilbo fear wolves? The answer somewhat surprises the dwarves. Alternatively: A discussion of the Fell Winter & Warrior Hobbits, as well as why and how Thorin Oakenshield decides to give their Burglar a chance.


**I have no excuse for this one shot. I should be working/finishing stories in my other fandoms. Just something that popped into my head when I watched The Hobbit. Mix of Book and Movie, but primarily movie, I think.**

**Concerning Hobbits and Wolves**

"Bilbo . . . I've got a question." Kili looked at where the hobbit was reluctantly setting up his bed-roll next to Bofur. An elf stopped by, and was giving some extra blankets, though most of the dwarves ignored him.

"Yes?"

"Do you not like wolves?" The other dwarves all paused, and even Thorin glanced at Kili in confusion. "You sounded more scared of them than you did orcs and wargs."

"Most Hobbits don't, I understand, not after the Fell Winter." The elf noted, ignoring Thorin's glare and the way Bilbo stiffened. "A reasonable fear, I believe." The elf left, ignoring Fili's mutter that his brother asked Bilbo and not the elf.

"Fell Winter?" Kili tilted his head, and Bilbo sighed.

"It was a rough winter, some 30 years back, so bad hobbits were limiting themselves to 2 or three small meals. There was several feet of snow, most were snowed into their holes for a few days, but there were some who found ways to clear the snow from their holes and make paths." Bilbo settled down as he began to speak, and all the dwarves were listening, even Bifur and Thorin, though the former was only following the mood of the company, and the latter was quietly holding the map under his coat and pretending not to listen.

"The Brandywine River even froze completely, something it had never done. For the first few days, it was rather fun, seeing everything covered in white, and some of the more adventurous even went sledding on the river, myself included." Bilbo gave a small smile, but it vanished quickly. "Some livestock had gone missing, but no one thought much of it then, as it had been a bad storm; but a few days later, we heard the howling. Wolves had crossed the frozen river into Hobbiton." Bilbo shuddered; Bofur reached out and put a hand on the small Hobbit's shoulder. "I was more adventurous as a lad, and my mother sent me out to check on a relative." Bilbo shook his head. "I didn't get that far, the wolves were in between, had killed Old Bolger, and were attacking his grandchildren. I didn't think, I threw a rock at the wolves to distract them, which worked, and the children were able to get away into a nearby smial, but then I had a wolf pack chasing me." Bilbo closed his eyes. "I was lucky, Tooks and Brandybucks had been scrambling to get their efforts coordinated, and I ran into some of my cousins who had bows as they were headed to check on Hobbiton.

"I must confess, I don't know how they routed them, I probably fainted. The children I'd saved survived, though one had a badly damaged arm, but there were several deaths where the wolves found hobbits alone and too far from shelter." Bilbo looked at them, prepared to be mocked for being weak.

"You threw a rock at them?" Ori blinked.

"I didn't think that through. I just wanted to get them away from the fauntlings." Bilbo defended, embarrassed. He gave a soft yelp as a hand clapped his back, almost sending him forward into the fire Gloin had set up.

"You've got an iron spine hidden in you!" Dwalin laughed. "It's just a mite rusty from disuse!"

"I beg your pardon?" It was Bilbo's turn to blink as the dwarves seemed to give him more genuine smiles, if that was possible.

"So, Tooks and Brandybucks are your warrior clans?" Ori asked, scooting closer with his open book, he had been taking notes.

"Er, you could say that, Tooks tend to go on adventures, and Brandybucks deal a bit more with Big People- Men, that is."

"Didn't you say your mother was a Took?" Dori vaguely remembered hearing that, but couldn't remember if Bilbo or Gandalf said during one of their conversations.

"Yes, Belladonna Took, she was quite an adventurer, traveled with Gandalf once or twice before settling down with my father, had the best stories about the different things she saw." Bilbo explained. "My cousin, the Thain, joked that she'd must of thought settling down to be more of a challenge than adventures."

"Thain? What's a Thain?" Ori scooted even closer, as did Fili and Kili.

"Thain? Well, he's something similar to a king of the Shire, I suppose, though he doesn't really concern himself with politics, that's mostly the mayor of Hobbiton. The Master of Brandy Hall governs Buckland, which is sometimes mixed with the Shire by outsiders; they're a queer lot, though."

"You're cousin is a king?"

"Thain, similar to a king, Hobbits don't particularly care about such things." Bilbo corrected with a shrug. "Of course, most are ruing the day when Paladin and Saradoc take over, they get into all sorts of mischief, most recently they stole some mince pies from Dolly Proudfoot."

"Who are Paladin and Saradoc?"

"My cousins, Paladin Took, who is next in line to be Thain, and Saradoc Brandybuck, who is next in line to be the Master of Buckland."

" . . . You're related to a lot of important hobbits." Kili blinked, staring at Bilbo. "Is that why you're so good at being polite?"

"No, that's what comes with being a Baggins; we're sensible hobbits, mostly." Bilbo added.

As the three Dwarves questioned him about the Shire (and why wasn't Buckland considered part of the Shire if it was lived in by Hobbits?) the other dwarves were listening and quietly revising their opinions of their hobbit (and if any noticed they were now claiming him as 'theirs', well, they felt they had a right).

"Going to have to teach him to use that letter opener." Dwalin growled to himself as he sat next to Thorin. "Let that potential rust like that . . . Hobbits must know nothing of proper training."

"You think he has potential?" Thorin looked at him. To anyone else, the question would sound derisive- dismissive of such a possibility. To those who knew Thorin, and his unfortunately stone-cold personality, it was considerate, but slightly doubtful.

"If he was a coward, he'd have hidden himself and left the little ones to the wolves. You and I both know that throwing a rock speaks volumes about his character."

It did. Some of the best warriors were those who's instinct got the better of them, who'd forget the danger when someone they cared about (or even just an ally) was threatened, and who would react to defend them. Any idiot could defend and protect their own life (with varying degrees of success), but it took _something_ more to defend others.

Especially when there was no decent weapon around, and one must improvise.

"Had the nerve to stall for time." Thorin muttered, repeating Gandalf's words. None of them _had_ thought of that, not until he had caught on to Bilbo's desperate ruse. The hobbit had left the comfort of home to follow them, despite only knowing them all of one night. _"Loyalty and a willing heart . . ."_ Maybe the hobbit had those things after all.

Thorin pushed away those thoughts as he saw Gandalf coming down the hall. He'd give the hobbit a chance, but that was all he would give.

"Balin, Burglar, with me." Everyone jumped, and Thorin ignored the confused looks of the others as Balin and the hobbit followed him and Gandalf.

He'd give the Hobbit a chance, but Thorin was too used to being disappointed by outsiders to give him anything more until Bilbo proved him wrong.

* * *

**A/N (Which you can skip): So I was watching the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and I noticed that, when they're at the Troll Hoard and they hear the Warg's howling, Bilbo's the first to react, and the way he say's 'Wolves' is far more scared sounding than when he questions Kili and Fili about Orcs.**

**This, because I read the Lord of the Rings, made sense when I considered the Fell Winter (mentioned briefly while the Fellowship was on Caradhras.) '**_**No living Hobbit, save Bilbo, could remember the Fell Winter of (Date I don't remember) when the wolves crossed the frozen Brandywine into Hobbiton.'**_** I think is the line, I'm going off memory right now, can't find my copy to double check. So I guessed that Bilbo would have at least been in his Tweens at this time, and certain relatives not yet born.**

**And then I noticed that it's Balin and Bilbo with Thorin and Gandalf when they have Elrond translate the map, and this plot bunny was born. (Yes, I'm aware of the possibility that Gandalf brought Bilbo along without Thorin's permission, but this made far more sense.) So, ta-da.**

**I added the bits about Shire and Bilbo's cousins because Hobbits have a bad habit of explaining personal history when mentioning anything about the Shire. If I have my dates and ages right (and the LOTR movies do wonders at messing that up for me) then Paladin and Saradoc (the fathers of Pippin and Merry) are currently younger than Bilbo and not yet of age- Frodo turns 33 when Bilbo turns 111, and that's 60 years after the quest, and Pippin is 29 (or so) when they head to Rivendell in the book, which is 17 years after Bilbo turns 111, and he is the youngest of four, having 3 older sisters.**

**In the LOTR movies, though, It seems like it's only a couple months/ a year before Gandalf returns to the Shire, meaning Pippin was around 28 or so at the time of the birthday party, instead of being 12 (as in the book) and thus my confusion about how hold Saradoc and Paladin would be, because they'd be alive, but children I think at this point, given the 100-110 lifespan of hobbits and so the oldest they could be in the hobbit is early 30's I think.**

**I'm not going to go into my attempts to figure out dwarves ages, except in my mind, Ori is mistaken for the youngest because Dori mothers the heck out of him and he's just naturally in awe of everyone by virtue of being a scholar and toymaker. (Yes, I hold that Ori (and Dori) are the toy makers, not Bofur or Bifur, mostly because Ori's the one with the slingshot.)**

**This, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the story, and everything to do with me asking who, if anyone, can send me information of the timeline(s) of movie and/or book. Please? With Sprinkles and Cherries (because one cherry is not enough)?**


End file.
